Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-12-09

the welfare and liberal compensation OF
our laboring people. All labor is honor
ible In the eyes of every American citi-
zen and lies at the foundation OF our de-
velopment. 1t is entitled without affec>
tJstion or hypocrisy to the utmost
regard. The standard of our laborer,
ife should not be measured By
hat OF any other country less favored and
n-y are eusitled to their full share OF our
aas sRtegss.
Is. The asst census it is made to appear,
TT the 1885, ,099 of our population
sSas" ii In all kinds of industries 1870,
rs are employed in agriculture, 4,074, 2SS
IN professional ana personal service,
2,493 SIC of whom are domestic servants
sud t.hoCsrs, wh'lo 1,Slo,a56 are oua-
10y IA trade ana transportation, and
3,S31, ,ll2 are ciassed as employed st man
Jtacturinx and minins. For present
purposes, however, the last number given
-hould be consider ably reduced.
Without atsem ptiug to enumerate
Ill, it will be conceded tha, there s"ould
ae deducted from those which it includes.
S35,liS carpenters and joiners, 2S5,17o
lsIlllners, 0ressmakers and seam
Eresses, 1I2,1a6 blacksmiths, 1876
talors and tailoresses, ln7,C00 ma
sons, rs 24l butchers, Al 500 bakers,
22,lS2 plasterers, and 4S0l manu-
factartng agricultural i'm plements, leav1
ing 262,30S persons employed in manul
tactaring industries as are claimed to be
benefited by high tariff" To these the
appeal is made to save their employment
and malneain their wages by resisting a
change, and there should be no dis
POSITION to answer such sugges-
A.ons by the allegation that they
are in minority among those
who labor and therefore should
forego an advantage in the interest of
lew prices for the majority. Their com
pensation, os il may be affected by the
operations of tariff laws, should at all
times be scrupulously kept in view, and
yet with slight reflections, they will not
overlook the fact that they are consumers
with the rest, they too have their own
wants and those of their families to sup
ply from their earnings and that the
prices of the nscessaries of life as we'll as
the amount of those wants will regulate
the measure of their welfare and com.
fort. But the
REDUCTION OF TAXATION
demanded should be so measured as not
to necessitate or Justify either the loss of
employment by the workingman nor tho
lessening of his wages, and the profits
still re naming to the manufacturer after
a necessary readjustment should furnish
no excuse for the sacrifice OF the inter.
ests of his employers in either their op-
portunity to work or the dininution of
their compensation.
THE woRKINGMANs NEED.
Nor can worker in manufactures un-
\. l..
claimed to be necessary to allow the pay
ment of remunerative wages, it certainly
results in o very large increase in the
price of nearly all sorts of manufactures
which, in almost countless forms, he needs
for the use of himself and his family. He
receives a. the desk of his employer his
wages, and, perhaps, before he reaches
his home, is obliged, in a purchase for
family use of an article which embraces
his own labor, to return, in the payment
of the increasing price which the tariff
permits, the hard-earned compensation
of many days of toll. The farmer and
the agriculturalist, who manufacture
nothing, but who pays the increased price
which the tariff imposes upon every ag-
ricultural implement, upon all he wears
and upon all he uses and owns, except
the increase cf his focks and herds and
such things as his husbandry produces
from the soil is invited to aid ip
maintaining the present situation. When
he is told that high duty
on imported wool is necessary for
rhe benefit of those who have sheep
to sheer, in order that the price of their
wool may be increased, they of course are
not reminded that the farmer who has no
sheep Is by this scheme obliged, in his
PURCHASES of clothing ano wooden goods,
~ nay tribute to his fellow farmers, as
we'll as to the manufacturer and
merchants, nor is any mention made of
the fact tnat the sheep owners them
selves aud their households must
wear clothing aud use other
articles manufactured from the wool they
sell at tariff prices, and thus as consum-
ers must return their share of|the in
creased price to the tradesman. think
It may be fairly assumed that large pro-
portion of the sheep owned by the farm
ers throughout the country are found in
small focks numbering from twenty five
10 fifty. The duty on the grade of WOO.
which these sheep yield is ten cents on each
pound, if of the value of thirty cents or
less, and twelve cents, if of the value of
more than thirty cents. If the liberal es-
fleece, the duty thereon would be sixty or
seventy-two cents, and this may b:
taken as the ultimate enhance
ment of its price to the
farmer by reason of this duty. Eighteen
dollars would thus represent the increas
ed price of his wool from twenty-fiv
sheep, and thirty six dollars that from
the wool of fifty sheep; and at present
values this addition would amount to
about one-third of its price. If, upon its
sale, the farmer receives this, or less
tariff profit, the wool leaves his hands
charged with precisely that sum, which,
in all its changes, will adhere to it until
it reaches the consumer, when manufac-
tured into cloth, and other goods and ma
terial for use. Its cost is not only in
creased to the extent of the farmers
tariff profit, but a further sum
has been added for the benefit of
the manufacturer, under The opera
tion of other tariff laws. In the
meantime, the day arrives when the
farmer finds it necessary to purchase
wooden goods and material to clothe him
self and family for the winter. When he
faces the tradesman for that purpose he
discovers that he is obliged, not only to
return in the way of increased prices his
pICHG on the WOOl ne SOLO, which
then perhaps, lies before him in manu-
factured form, but that he must add
considerable sum thereto to meet fur.
ther increase in cost, caused by tariff
duty on the manufactures. Thus in the
end he is aroused to the fact that he
has paid upon moderate purchase
as a result of the tariff scheme,
which when he sold his wool
seemed SO profitable an increase in
price, more than sufficient to sweep away
all the tariff profit he received upon the
wool he produced and sold. When the
number of farmers engaged in wool rails
ing is com pared with all the farmers in
the country, and the small proportion
they bear to our population is consideredi
when il is made apparent that in the case
of large part of those who OWE sheep,
the benefit of the present tariff on wool is
illusory, aud above all, when it muet be
conceded that the increase OF the cost of
living caused by such tariff becomes q
burden upon those with moderate means,
and the poor, the en- ployed and the un
employed, the sick and well, and the
yourg AID old, and that it constitutes
tax. which with relentless grasp, is fas-
tened upon the clothing of every man,
woman and child in the land, reasons
are suggested why the removal or reduc-
ton of this duty should be included in
-evisian OF our tariff laws.
IscsKasED COST TO coxsUxERs.
In speaking of the increased cost